..thanks for a very interesting thread..here's a couple of contributions from me. The first piece is extracted from Erik Mombeek's history of Jagdgeschwader 4 - not available in English yet (my translation).
".......Ogfr. Heinz Papenberg of 6. (Sturm)/JG 4 also had good reason to recall this sortie ;
... On 27 Sepember 1944 II./JG 4 was vectored to intercept a large formation of enemy bombers over Eisenach nr Kassel. As we came upon them we could see there were no escorts in the vicinity. Deprived of their fighter screen the bombers were virtually sitting ducks. Selecting a bomber slightly adrift of the main formation, I bore in on my target. At close range I pressed the firing button to unleash a burst from my onboard armament. Nothing happened! I tried again. Nothing! I thought then about the Sturm commitment to ram and decided to do it! In my mind's eye I can still see the tail gunner as he flung himself back into the bomber's fuselage. One second later my port wing sawed through the bomber's rudder. Badly damaged in the collision, my wing could hold the plane in the air no longer and I spun away... for a few moments I decided I was going to die as my kite spiralled down out of control. The desire to live soon reasserted itself. I threw the stick forward and hit the canopy jettison button. The sliding section of the hood only partially opened and I had to push against it with all my strength. It suddenly flew off and I was whipped out of the cockpit. Flung against the tailplane, the force of the blow snapped both my legs. I lost consciousness. I came round at about 200 meters altitude still free falling. I could see the ground rushing up to meet me and tugged frantically at the ripcord. Above me my chute billowed open. I came down in a field along the slopes of the Rhön and lay spreadeagled on the silk awning in agony from my injured legs and bloodied arm. I was in such a pitiful state I thought about putting a bullet in my head but some French land workers arrived and took me to a nearby farmhouse... I had barely reached the operating table of the nearest field hospital when another air raid alert sent everybody down to the cellar… I never returned to frontline duties.."
This next description is extracted from Vol II of the Lorant/Goyat JG 300 history (published by Eagle Editions). This incident is described in a letter I have from Hubert Engst II.(Sturm)/JG 300 - he said it was one of only two rammings he knew about while serving throughout 1944 in one of the three Sturmgruppen of the Luftwaffe ..and the only one he witnessed....(my translation...enjoy !)
" ....On 7 October 1944, the 8th Air Force launched a huge force of some 1,420 bombers
to strike at synthetic fuel plants and industrial sites in north-eastern and central Germany:
— 1st force (149 B-17s of the 1st BD) synthetic oil plants at Pölitz.
— 2nd force (333 B-17s of the 1st BD) refineries at Ruhland and Brüx.
— 3rd force (451 B-17s of the 3rd BD) refineries at Böhlen, Lützkendorf and Merseburg/Leuna.
— 4th force (489 B-24s of the 2nd BD) refineries at Magdeburg-Rothensee, Bückau and the Kassel-Henschel and Altenbauna vehicle plants.
To screen this armada, 900 fighters of the 8th and 9th Air Forces were ordered up. The German forces available to meet such a massive incursion comprised the three Sturmgruppen, escorted by the Bf109s of I./JG3, III./JG4, I./JG300 and III./JG300, as well as several Me163 rocket fighters of I./JG400. All of these fighters were slated to concentrate their attacks on the B-17s of the 3rd force, while a small number of Me262 jets of Kommando Nowotny would attempt to intercept the B-24s of the 4th force.
At 10:30 the thirty minute readiness alert sent nearly ninety JG300 pilots out to their aircraft arrayed around the fields at Borkheide, Löbnitz and Jüterbog. Twenty minutes later, the green flares shot up into the sky. The Messerschmitts and Focke-Wulfs, displaying their wide red fuselage bands, lifted off between 10:50 and 11:05, straining for altitude to rendezvous and form up in a Gefechtsverband (battle formation) at a height of 7,000 meters over Wittenberge. Along with the four 190s of his Stabschwarm, the Kommodore Maj. Walther Dahl took up a position at the head of this powerful formation. Orders came through to take up a track towards the Kyffhäuser.
Directed with precision through a sky banked with altocumulus cloud formations, the pilots of II.(Sturm)/JG300, IV.(Sturm)/JG3 and II.(Sturm)/JG4 sighted the first boxes of bombers west of Leipzig at 11:50, glinting in the sun. Lt. Klaus Bretschneider ordered the assault fighters of II.(Sturm)/JG300 to gain altitude rapidly. The Focke-Wulf 190s launched their strike with a height advantage of 1,000 meters in ideal conditions. Converging in successive waves of eight to ten aircraft their 30mm cannon cut swathes through the bombers, the Sturmböcke breaking left and right underneath them to sweep around moments later for a second pass from the rear. The sky soon became a gigantic spectacle of criss-crossing trails of smoke and vapor. Large numbers of parachutes started to mushroom open.
In the opening minutes of the attack, at least eight Boeing B-17s sheered out of their boxes and plunged down in flames. A further three Boeings were spotted trailing smoke or spewing parachutes in their wake. Two of the four-engine bombers went down at 12:05 under the withering fire pumped out by Ofhr. Peter Winter and Lt. Klaus Bretschneider. The latter immediately latched onto two further Fortresses. Leaving one of the by now battered B-17s to drift out of formation, Bretschneider, having exhausted his ammunition, deliberately rammed the second - his wing sliced through the bomber's own wing, hacking it off some five metres from the tip. The B-17 peeled away into a vicious flat spin. Although slightly injured by the force of the collision, Bretschneider managed to retain control of his Fw 190 and put down safely - despite a buckled aileron - on the first airfield he spotted....".
